against the Lord; and that not only in the days of your unregeneracy, when " ye yielded your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin," but since you gave them up in covenant to the Lord, as instruments dedicated to his service. And yet how tender has Providence been over them! You have often provoked him to afflict you in every part, and lay penal evil upon every member that has been instrumental in moral evil; but O, how great have his compassions been towards you, and how admirable his patience! Consider what is the aim of Providence in all the tender care it has manifested for you. Why does it protect you so assiduously, and suffer no evil to befall you ? Is it not that you should employ your bodies for God, and cheerfully apply yourselves to the service he has called you to? Doubtless this is the end and level of these mercies; for else to what purpose are they afforded you? Your bodies are a part of Christ's purchase, as well as your souls. I Cor. vi. 19. They are committed to the charge and tutelage of angels, Heb. i. 14., who have performed many services for them. They are dedicated

by yourselves to the Lord, and that on the highest account, Rom. xii. 1. They have already been the subjects of manifold mercies in this world, Psal xxxv. 10, and shall partake of singular glory and happiness in the world to come, Phil. iii. 21. And shall they not be employed, yea, cheerfully worn out in his service? How reasonable is it that they should be so! Why are they so tenderly preserved by God, they must not be used for God?

X. You have heard of many great things performed for you by divine Providence, in the former particulars; but there is an eminent favor it bestows on the saints, which has not yet been considered, and indeed is too little attended to by us, and that is, the aid and assistance it gives the people of God in the great work of mortification.

The mortification of our sinful affections and passions, is the one half of our sanctification; "Dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God," Rom. vi. 11. It is the great evidence of our interest in Christ; Gal. v. 24; Rom. vi. 5. 9. It is our safety in the hour of temptation; the cor

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ruptions in the world are through lust; 2 Pet. i. 4. Our fitness for service depends much upon it, 2 Tim. ii, 21; John xv. 2. How great a service to our souls therefore must that be, by which this blessed work is carried on upon them!

Now there are two means or instruments employed in this work. The Spirit who effects it internally, and Providence which assists it externally. The Spirit indeed is the principal agent, upon whose operation the success of this work depends; and all the providences in the world can never effect it without him. But these are secondary and subordinate means, which, by the blessing of the Spirit upon them, have a great hand in the work. The most wise God orders the dispensations of Providence in a blessed subordination to the work of his Spirit. There is a sweet harmony betwixt them in their distinct workings. They all meet in that one blessed issue which God has, by the counsel of his will, directed them to, Eph. i 11; Rom. viii, 28. Hence it is, that the Spirit is said to be in, and to order the motions of the wheels of Providence, Ezek. i. 20; and so they move to

gether by consent. Now one great part of the Spirit's internal work being to destroy sin in the people of God, see how conformable to his design, external providences are ordered in the following particulars

1. There is, in all the regenerate, a strong propensity and inclination to sin, and in that lies a principal part of the power of sin. Of this Paul sadly complains, "But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members," Rom. vii. 23; and every believer daily finds it to his grief, O it is hard to forbear those things that grieve God! God has made a hedge about us, and fenced us against sin by his laws; but there is a proneness in nature to break over the hedge, and that against the very strivings of the Spirit of God in us. Now see in this case, the concurrence and assistance of Providence for the prevention of sin. As the Spirit internally resists those sinful inclinations, so Providence externally lays bars and blocks in our way to hinder and prevent sin. And this is the mean

ing of those places lately cited, Hos. ii. 6; 2 Cor. xii. 7; Job xxxiii. 17, 19.

A question may be asked here, Is it the mark and property of gracious spirits, to forbear sin because of the rod of affliction? they have surely higher motives and nobler principles than this; this is the temper of a carnal and slavish spirit. True, it is so, when this is the sole or principal restraint from sin; when a man abhors not sin, because of its intrinsic uncleanness, but only because of the troublesome consequences and effects. But this is vastly different from the case of the saints, under sanctified afflictions; for as they have higher motives and nobler principles, so they have lower and more sensible ones too; and these are, in their kind and place, very useful to them. Besides, you must know, that afflictions work in another way in gracious hearts to restrain them from sin or warn. them 、against sin, than they do in others. It is not so much the smart of the rod which they feel, as the tokens of God's displeasure, which affright them, "Thou renewest thy witnesses against me;" Job x. 17, and this is that which principally.